Deadly Nightshade
by LuminaCarina
Summary: Bellatrix is dead, her sister is dead, but Narcissa isn't torn up about it. After all, this is what Bellatrix had always wanted.


**Written for the Lana Del Rey Lyric Prompt Challenge.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

'She was such a wild girl.'

Narcissa traced her sister's coffin and thought back fondly to all the times she heard their aunt scream and scold Bella.

Really, aunt Walburga had been the only one to keep up with Bella, what with their mother dead and their father denying their very existence. And those were the words she had always used to describe the eldest Black sister – a wild girl.

That was the truth, in the end. Bellatrix, just like she and Dromeda, had lived up to her name. A warrior, a cold dominatrix and the most powerful witch of her age. She herself didn't boast any such accomplishments; she was vain and beautiful, just as Narcissus had been. The only redeeming quality she had was the love she had for Draco. And the less said about Andromeda, the better.

But, Bellatrix wasn't sane, or happy.

Oh, she pretended that life was just fine and dandy, that she was an untouchable queen who got to do whatever she wanted, and that her only worry in life was when she'd get to have fun, but Narcissa knew that wasn't her true face.

Frankly, Narcissa didn't know what her sister's true face had been, for Bella was a mask under a mask under a mask. She wore costumes as easily as she wore her own skin, easier even. To Bella, deceiving was as natural as breathing. At least, it had been before she went mad with bloodlust, before the Dementors. And even after that, she could hide her poison and rage if she wanted to. She had always been the best at what she did, whether it was ballroom dancing or torturing.

But she liked to think that even though she never saw the true Bellatrix, she knew her essence. To Narcissa, Bella was insane and anarchic, with dreams of death and daring. She could recall plenty of instances when the Death-Eaters would come to the Malfoy Manor with tales of Bella jumping in front of a curse or a hex, without even the simplest shield.

Bella had a fascination with death, not really an obsession, but a quite lax and careless attitude about it that sometimes Narcissa wondered whether her sister was in love with the idea of it. All the Deadly Nightshade she grew in the Lestrange Manor didn't help quench her doubts either.

She remembered what Andromeda had once said, back when she was still a sister to her. ''She's an acrobat, but still she cannot breathe.''

She didn't understand what it meant, and only years later did she find out what an acrobat is, but she had to admit that it fit Bellatrix so utterly that it was disturbing. Because that is what Bella was – an acrobat, twisting and dancing and forever in motion, not just with her body but also with her mind. Maybe that's what led to her downfall, that unfathomable wish for movement not only just in body, but on a grander scale. That was the same longing the Dark Lord took advantage of when he preached about revolution.

And then, Bellatrix, who had never been able to function properly in the real world, was sucked into a war that would destroy her and, ultimately, kill her. Bellatrix had shone like a miniature sun on the battlefield, and Narcissa had never seen her more joyous that in the aftermath of a fight.

'Really,' she thought with a smile, 'you were everything we were taught not to be. But then again, mother did give us our names for a reason. Maybe she foretold what you would become.'

She gave one last look at the coffin holding her beloved sister and then went back to Lucius and Draco. Bella was in Valhalla now, and though she knew she would never join her, she could hope. After all, hope is the last one to die.

**So, what do you think? I was given three quotes and told to work with them, and I used the ideas behind them instead of their actual wording. **

**I hope I didn't make Narcissa too OOC, and while I'm not sure about Bella, this is the way I see her so I guess it's ok. **

**Well, reviews would be welcomed, meaning review people, review!**


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